Means for protecting banks against robbery



f AQQQSS G. ROBINSON MEANS FOR PROTECTING BANKS AGAINST ROBBERY Amig Z2Filed Aug. 9, 1920 3 Sheets-Sheet l ...w .tl bbl .'Vbwl Amig z2 192%mgws G. ROBINSQN MEANS FOR PROTECTING BANKS AGAINST ROBBERY Filed Aug. 91920 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 8 3 9 0 9 Aw En N O s m B O R G.

April 22 1924.

MEANS FOR PROTECTING BANKS AGAINST ROBBERY 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Aug. 91920 Patented Apr. 22, `1924i..

NiTE STATES GEQRGE ROBINSON, 0F BRQOKLYN, NEW YORK.

MEANS FOR PROTECTIN G BANKS AGAINST ROBBERY.

Application led August 9, 1920. Serial No. 402,420.

7'0 lll whomv it may concern.'

Be it known that I, GEORGE ROBINSON, a subject of the King of GreatBritain, residing at New York city, borough of Brooklyn, in the countyof Kings and State of New York, have invented a certain new and usefulMeans for Protecting Banks Against Robbery, of which the following is aspeciication.

This invention relates to the protection of banks and is moreparticularly directed to a system whereby banks, and other places wheremoney is handled in large quantities, may be protected againstburglaryor holdup, during such hours of the working day as it is not feasible tokeep money in vaults and when considerable cash is required forimmediate use.

The conditions which enable a criminal to qiuickl approach the payingteller or cashier o a bank, cover him with ire arms, and find the cashwithin easy access is psychologically, a great temptation to personscriminally inclined. Up to the present time, however, very little hasbeen actually accomplished in preventing surprise attacks, other than toprovide private police protection, which has provenentirely inadequatein the event of a surprise attack.

With the foregoing considerations in mind, the object of the presentinvention is to provide a means for bank protection, whichl willpreclude a successful surprise attack, and, will, at the same time,jeopardize' the liberty of a person or tempting such an attack. f

yIn the preferred form'of the present invention, the entrance tothevicinity of the cashier or paying teller' is controlledl asl well as theexit from such vicinity, so' that even though persons gain'entrance,they can 'be precluded from le ving if` itis desired to detain them. f

Another feature of the to pre-V .among the .bank

clude any or all persQns, employees handling money, r from` leavingrtheir stations, except at'theV discretion of some oicial of the bank, iis not in a position to Confederate Vwith an outsider, pass the moneyafter escape with him'. e

Features of the invention, other than those specified, will be apparentfrom the hereinafter detailed description and drawing, when read inconjunction with the accompanying drawings. i

persons atso that anemployee to him, andv 'there- The accompanyingdrawings illustrate one practical embodiment of the invention, but theconstruction therein shown is to be understood as illustrative, only,and not as defining the limits of the invention.

Figure l is a fragmentary perspective view of a bank lay-out with whichthe present invention is associated.

Figure 2 is a fragmentary plan lay-out of the same bank illustratingelectrical controlling means operable by one employee or the other; and,,I

Figure 3 illustrates in perspective detail, ina more or lessdiagrammatic Way, a turnstile of the character which I may employ inearr ing out the present invention.

Alythou h the present invention may be associatedg with various forms ofbank layouts, I have chosen, for the purpose of illustration, a bankwherein the various cages for the emplo ees extend along one wall of thebank buil ing and are spaced therefrom to provide an aisle passing alongthe back of all of the cages. For the purpose of illustration, we willassume that A designates the cashiers cage, B the paying tellers ca e,and C and D two cages directly adjacent t e cages A and B. The cages Cand D may be occupied either by bookkeepers or other employees of thebank or by specialattendants.

A convenient and relatively inexpensive manner of associating thepresent invention with va bank having the type of lay-out shown, istoprovide two secondary cages E and F, one of which is placed directlyin front of the cashiers vwindow a. and the other of which is positioneddirectly in front of the paying tellers window b., so that a personapproaching the cashiers window must rst gain entrance to the a personapproaching a paying tellers window must iirst gain entrance tothe cageF. Both the cages E and F have closed topsvor extend to the ceiling andvthe same construction is also Vtrue C and D.

In accordance with this invention, the entrance and exit to therespective cages E and F is controlled by an attendant or attendants,through the employment of suitable closures associat and these closuresmay be of any form, but

of each `of thecages A, B,

are illustrated as turn-Stiles, one of which is.

shown in detail in Fi ure 3. The cage E has an entrance turn-stile`e andan exit turn# stilee, while thev'cage Fjlras an entrance cage E, whileed with the cages E and F` shown as provided with -ratchet by a springg. T

turn-stile f and an exit turn-stile f. These turn-Stiles may beindependently operated and are adapted to be normally locked againstoperation, so that in the normal condition of the system, no one couldeither enter or leave the cages E or F.

The operation of the turn-Stiles may be controlled in various ways, butas shown the control is electrical. Each turn stile is provided at itsbase with a ratchet wheel G, with which is associated a pawl gmaintained at all times inengagement with the he pawl and ratchetconnection described is such as to preclude retrograde rotation of therespective turnstiles, While each turn-stile is normally precluded froma forward rotation by an electrically operated ratchet connection at thetop of the turn-stile. This ratchet connection includes a ratchet wheelH, with which is associated an electrically controlled detent h. In theform of the invention shown, this detent is secured to a core i of asolenoid I and the core z' is normally impelled toward the ratchet tobring the detent into engagement therewith by a spring z".

This construction normally locks the turnstile against rotation untilsuch time as the solenoid is energized, whereupon its core is retractedand the detent disengaged from the ratchet for the purpose ci allowingthe turn-stile to advance. The ratchet H is fourteeth corresponding tothe four arms of the turn-stile, so' that each time the solenoid isenergized, the turn-stile will be allowed to pass one persontherethrough.

Each turn-stile is provided with a solenoid as described and for thepurpose of identification, these solenoids are designated in Figure 2 asI', I2, Is and I4, which coo crate with the turn stiles e, e', f, andrespectively.`

In accordance with this invention, the solenoids of the res ectiveturn-Stiles are included in electrica circuits by means of which theturn-Stiles may be controlled, so as to permitmpersons to enter or leavethe cages E and F, as desired, or to preclude the entrance or exit ofsuch persons. These i turn-Stiles are controlled from any suitable'cashier or paying te position or positions and, in practice, they may,ifv desired, beso wired that thecashier may control'the entrance andexit of ersons from the cage E, while the paying te ler can control theentrance and exit of persons from his cage F. However, in practice,A Iprefer that some erson, other than the ler control the entrance and exitoi the cages E and F, and while this person may be a special attendant,I find it economical to have other employees of the bank, who are notnormally kept busy with the usual worlr, attend to the control of theturn-stiles`7 For example, the bookkeeper,

in the cage A before releasing Leccese clerk or other employees workingin the ca e I C may control the turn-Stiles of the gage through thethree wire electrical circuits shown, while another bookkeeper or otheremployee working in the cage D may control the turn-stile of the cage Fthrough .the three wire circuits shown in conjunction therewith. i

The three wire circuit associated with the cage C is energized from anysuitable source of current supply J kfrom which leads a. common wire j,branching at lj', to include both solenoids I and I. From thesesolenoids return wires j lead to switchesk and 2, which are connectedthrough a return wire lc to the source of current supply J. The switchesk and k2 are shown as ordinary. push button switches. When the switch cis operated, the circuit is closed to the solenoid i', therebypermitting the operation of the turn-stile e to allow a person to enterthe cage E. When it is desired tc allow a person to leave such cage,push button k2 may be pressed to energize the solenoid I2 and allow ofthe operation of the turn stile e. The ush buttons 7c and k may bepositioned 1n any location Within the cage C, and may be either hand orfoot operated switches. The employee working in the cage C can readilysee a client before the turn-stile and by pressing the button la' mayallow him to enter the cage. The turnstile is immediately locked againstretrograde rotation by the pawl g, so that a client cannot leave thecage by the turn-stile e and, moreover, cannot leave the cage throughthe turn-stile e', until the ush button k2 is operated. The employee 1nthe cage C preferably receives instructionsfrom the cashier the clientandV while this information ma be communicated. verbally, it also may ecommunicated through electrically operatedsignals. Such signals maypartake of any desired form, but for the purpose of illustration, twolam s M and N are shown, which are electrica ly connected with'two pushbuttons m and n in the cashiers cage.

Byprearrangement, it mav be understood, between the operators, Athatwhen the cashier presses the button m, the lam M will be illuminated,showing that the c ient is finished and may be allowed to leave the cageE, whereas when the button n is pushed, the lamp N will be illuminated,showing that the client is oi a suspicious character, and should bedetained until he can be appre- Ii desired, I may include in the circuitto the lamp N, a secondary circuit N', connected in any suitableelectrical manner to automatic alarm mechanism communicating with policeheadquarters er 'with the headquarters ci@ a 'protective agency erwit'n'anyother suitable centralodce or local alarm',

Leconte so that in the event that it it is desired to detain asuspicious person or a prospective robber in the supplemental cage, theoperation of the push button n will not only notify the operator in thecage C to detain such suspect, but will automatically and simultaneouslynotify the central oitice, police headquarters or give a general alarm.

The same method of control may be had with reference to cage F, the pushbuttons o and o2 corresponding with the push buttons /c and k3 and thesignalling system between the cages B and D, corresponding to thatdescribed between the cages A and C. 'lhrough this latter signallingsystem, the paying teller can signal to the turn-stile operator in thecage D, While the latter can control the operations of the turn-Stiles.

Moreover, the operators of the turn-Stiles are suiiiciently removed fromthe turn-Stiles to preclude them from being held up simultaneously withthe cashier or paying teller, and the operating push buttons forcontrolling the turn stiles position that the locality thereof may beprotected against gun fire from the outside of the cages in which theyare positioned.

In some robberies heretofore successful, there has been collusionbetween the cashier or paying teller and at the conclusion of therobbery, the bank employee has escaped with the robbers. Such collusionmay be obviated under this invention by locking the emplo yees withinthe cages A, B, C and D and making their release conditional upon thepermission of an ocial of the bank. To this end, the doors, a, b, e andd by which entrance or exit is had from the respective cages A, B, C andD, may be normally locked by an well known form of electric lock adapteto be unlocked electrically. Such locks are well known and usuallyinclude a magnet or solenoid embodying a coil, which when energized,serves to release the lock.

In Figure 2, I have shown six coils, diagrammatically, one for the lockassociated with each door and for the purpose of identication havedesignated Such coils P, P', P2 and P3 corresponding to the doors, a, b,c and d. Each coil is connected to thecorresponding push button, p', p2,p3 and p4, and these push buttons may be ositioned in the office of oneof the bank o cials so that an employee cannot leave a cage, until theofcial has been communicated with, either by messenger, telephone orotherwise, and permission granted by such oicial through the operationof an appropriate button.

lt will be noted from the foregoing detail description of the form ofsystem shown, that robbers are precluded from successful concertedaction in holding up a bank and the employees of such bank are furtherprecluded from severally conspiring with such may be placed in such.these robbers, unless all of the employees referred to are in collusionwith the criminals and such would never be the case.

In Figure 3 of the drawings, the controlling devices are shown on asomewhat large Scaleas compared to the turn-stile, but this showing onanv increased scale isy made in order that the invention may be clearlyunderstood, it being manifest that, in practice, the solenoids and,their ratchets, as well as the pawls and theirratchets, would berelatively small and might well be housed within small and"inconspicuouscasings arranged at the top `and bottom of the respective turn-Stiles.rl`he showing of such casings has, however, been considered unnecessary,to a full and complete understanding of the invention. n I

ln the foregoing description, persons working in the cages C and D aredescribed` as controlling the operations of the turnstiles. rlheseturn-Stiles may be controlled by any other persons especially designatedfor this purpose, and ythey need not control turn-Stiles from within thecages C and D Moreover, the control of the turnstiles may beaccomplished in a purely mechanical manner instead of by the electricalmeans described and this electrical means may be varied withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention. For these reasons, I wish itunderstood that the present invention is not restricted to theillustrative showing made, but is to be construed as broadly novel as iscommensurate with the appended claims.

Having thus fully described the invention, what I claim as new anddesire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A bank protective device embodying a plurality of cages in which theemployees of the bank are stationed, certain of said cages beingprovided with normally locked doors to preclude the unauthorized exit ofthe employee f rom such cages, and means controllable from a commonpoint or station to unlock the closure of any particular cage and allowof the exit of the employees therefrom.

2. A bank protective device embodying a tellers cage provided with anopening through which business is transacted, a protective cagepositioned in front of the tellers cage and through which protect1vecage persons desiring to do business with the teller are required topass, a closure controlling the entrance of persons into the protectivecage, a lock tor normally locking said closure, a closure through whichpersons are required to pass in leavin the protective cage,

a lock for normally locking such closure, an additional cage, andelectrical means operable from within the additional cage forcontrolling said locks.

3. A bank protective device embodyin a tellers cage provided with anopenlng through which business is transacted,ja proadditional cage,'electrical means operable l i tective cage positioned in front of thetellers from Within the additional cage for control-y cage and throughwhich protective cage perling said locks and an intercommunicatingsonsdesiring to do business with the teller signalling system between thetellers cage 5 are required to pass, a closure controlling and theadditional cage whereby the teller the entrance of persons into theprotective may signal for operation of the locks.

cage, a lock for normally locking said elo- In testimony whereof, I havesigned my sure, a closure through which persons are vrename to thisspecification. V

quired to pass in leaving the protective cage, l0 a lock for normallylocking suc-h closure, an GEORGE ROBINSON.

